Vice-Chancellors Distinguished Lecture Series

Inaugurated in early 2011, the University of Warwick's Distinguished Lecture Series brings public speakers of the highest calibre from the worlds of academia, business, the arts and civil society to our campus to share their thoughts and ideas.

The purpose of the series is to provoke discussion and debate about a range of topics and subjects in the past have included energy sustainability and the value of wealth. The agenda is kept deliberately broad and the lectures are intended to be accessible to a general audience. We encourage attendance from across the wider University community and hope you will join us at the lectures.

If you would like to suggest a speaker for the series, please get in touch the Events Team at events at warwick dot ac dot uk

Coming Up

University of Warwick alumnus, Oliver Hart is currently the Andrew E Furer Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1993. He is the 2016 co-recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Professor Hart presented his lecture on ‘Incomplete Contracts and Control’, which was a version of his Nobel Prize Lecture, originally delivered on 8 December 2016 at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University. A recording of the lecture (which took place on 17 May 2017 will be available shortly).

Previous Lectures

Professor Lorraine Daston

Lorraine Daston is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, and Visiting Professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

Reza Moghadam

Reza Modhadam is Vice Chairman, Global Capital Markets & Head of Sovereign Debt Coverage at Morgan Stanley. He joined the Firm in 2014 from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he served for 22 years.

Sir Nigel Thrift

The University of Life

Andrew Blake

Machines that learn: big data or explanatory models?

Andrew Blake took up his current post as Institute Director of The Alan Turing Institute in October 2015. He was previously a Microsoft Distinguished Scientist and the Laboratory Director of Microsoft Research, Cambridge.

Sir David King

Sustainable Futures: Survival of the City

Professor Sir David King is the UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change. He previously worked as the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, working with Prime Ministers Blair and Brown, during which time he raised awareness of the need for governments to act on climate change

Norman R Augustine

Research and Education in Developed Countries and the Dinosaur: They Never Saw it Coming

Norman R Augustine attended Princeton University where he graduated with a BSE and MSE in Aeronautical Engineering. He has served as Under Secretary of the Army and later Acting Secretary of the Army and as CEO of Lockheed Martin.

Jon Cruddas

Labour Value - Trade Unions and the Politics of the Common Good

Jon Cruddas became a policy officer with the Labour Party in 1989 before becoming the chief assistant to the General Secretary of the Labour Party in 1994. He is now head of Labour's policy review and is a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

Dame Helen Ghosh

For ever, for everyone. Reinventing the National Trust in the 21st Century

Dame Helen Ghosh spent seven years in central government before becoming Director-General of the National Trust in 2012, where her interest in history, people and places, and her commitment to the environment come together.

Beyond Public vs Private: Creating Entrepreneurial Public Value

Sir Michael Barber

Getting every child into school and learning; why wait?

Sir Michael Barber is a leading authority on education systems and education reform. He is Chief Education Advisor at Pearson, leading the company's worldwide programme of research into education policy and efficacy.Watch Sir Michael Barber's lecture

Developing the potential of the NHS as a global leader in research and innovation

Mona Siddiqui

Faith in public life - hope or hindrance?

Mona Siddiqui joined the University of Edinburgh’s Divinity school in December 2011 as the first Muslim chair in Islamic and Interreligious Studies. Prior to this she was Professor of Islamic Studies at Glasgow University for 15 years.